Quotes by Samuel Johnson, English Writer

  • No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.
  • Let me smile with the wise, and feed with the rich.
  • Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.
  • Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.
  • Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.
  • A man will turn over half a library to make one book.
  • A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.
  • Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.
  • The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.
  • When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.
  • Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.
  • Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.
  • The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.
  • Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.
  • If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?
  • To love one that is great, is almost to be great one’s self.
  • Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
  • Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.
  • Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.
  • Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.